How to add child task (sub-task) 4 levels down?

[Michele Zoromski]

I am using the Kanban board.  I made an Epic and then made child tasks for each epic.  For those Child tasks, I made additional child tasks (grand-child of Epic). For these tasks, I want to make additional child tasks, but the child button is not available on the Grand-Child tasks. I'd be super surprised if Jira only allowed 3 levels.  

Is it the template I am using?  Some setting I need to change?  I am new to Jira, so I haven't done any configuration with task types and such.  I'm using the free version, do I need to upgrade to have more levels?  Any advice is much appreciated.

Here's is the parent with it's sub-task below that doesn't have the child button.

[Payne · Accepted solution]

Sounds like the grandchildren are subtasks, which indeed cannot have their own subtasks.

Epic > Story (Issue) > Task (Subtask)

[John Funk · Accepted solution]

Hi Michele - Welcome to the Atlassian Community!

No, you are correct, Jira is limited to 3 levels - Epic > Story (or regular issue type) > Sub-task

[Michele Zoromski]

Thanks for the quick response.  Ugh, that is pretty limited. Is there a different template I could us that runs deeper?  Or a different way to organize?  I work in med device and we typically have 5+ levels...

[Michele Zoromski]

Or is there a way above to organize?  Really my Epics are large bins.  They themselves are just a method to organize.  Is there a different function that I could use to organize Epics so that I can move my stuff one level up?

[John Funk]

The best advice I could give you is to drive your Epics down to smaller levels.

You can link Epics together using the Linked issues function. That gives you a soft linkage versus a hard linkage for Epics to children but might serve a purpose for your..

[Michele Zoromski]

Is there a way to create tags on Epics so that I could soft bin them for filtering and sorting purposes?

[John Funk]

Sure - I would use the Components field to do that. 

[Michele Zoromski]

Thanks!

[Michele Zoromski]

I don't see a components field.  I took a look at the configure panel and there is no Off the shelf Components field.  Is that because I am using the Kanban project template?  Should I make a custom Components field.  I prefer using out of the box if it exists so that I don't create confusion.  Thoughts?

[John Funk]

No need to create a new field - it will be there. You might need to add the Component field to the screen you are using. But you should also see Components listed on the left hand navigation while on a board.

You must be a Project Administrator to add new Components and Components are unique to each project. So if you want to use a particular Component across multiple projects, you have to add the same Component to each Project.

[Michele Zoromski]

I still don't see it. I looked in Configure and on the boards themselves. Can you please point me to it.  Here's what I see:

[John Funk]

Ah, sorry - you are using a Next-gen project. So yes, you would need to create a new custom field for that. 

But Next-gen projects use a different scheme for connecting to Epics so not real sure if all of that will work. 

[Michele Zoromski]

Should I be using a different template?  I'm new to Jira, so have no alliance to any templates.  I've done Req Management in other tools, but since this project is pure software dev, I am using Jira so that I can easily leverage Agile templates, process and reports.  I'm happy to change if there is a better template for me to use.  Thoughts?

[John Funk]

Totally up to you, but what you will find is that Next-gen is very simple to use out of the box. But next to impossible to modify/customize it to get what you want if you need changes. 

Classic Software projects are a little more involved but there are LOTS of ways to customize it. I exclusively use Class projects.  :-)

[Michele Zoromski]

Is there a way to migrate over?

[John Funk]

It's not a nice clean way, but this works:

https://community.atlassian.com/t5/Jira-Software-questions/Migrating-from-Classic-to-Next-gen-Software-Projects/qaq-p/918856